Scott Ritter (11)

And today we’re going to cover a story that should be very important, especially in the West, but maybe hasn’t attracted the intention it should. And it’s the story of how humanity is abused by conflict. And this is a very personal story because today I’m going to be talking about it with my guest, Maxim Randovsky. He is a…

mixed martial arts fighter. I’m very afraid of sitting across from me. I don’t want to get you angry. So, you know, if I say anything wrong, give me a warning. But MMA fighter from Ukraine. You’re a Ukrainian. Is this correct?

Yes. I was born in Kiev. I am from Ukraine. Presently, I am a citizen of Ukraine. Of course, getting also Russian citizenship. Right now, I didn’t do any actions towards it. But in the near future, I’m thinking about it. I will be active.

But when you fought, you identified as a Ukrainian. A proud Ukrainian.

You were proud to be Ukrainian.

Of course. But for me, it doesn’t matter what flag is raising up. For me, there are different things that matter. That’s our culture, our history, our faith that we share, as you know. Right now, there’s a huge run after the Orthodox Church on a Ukrainian territory. There’s some persecution that takes place. It really doesn’t matter.

The flag, there are more important things than the flag. That’s what I’m trying to say.

I agree with you. But the point I’m trying to make is that when you fought, you fought for Ukraine as a Ukrainian. But when you trained, you trained for the love of the sport. You trained with people who could help advance your skills. And my understanding is that you at one time trained with Ahmad. Why?

Why did you pick Ahmad to train with?

That’s a very interesting question, because I have never trained with Ahmad Club. It never took place. I took participation in Daghestan sports meeting. Mr. Magomedov, the father of Habib, and he’s an ex-champion of USC. At that platform, I was taking part. Yes, among my friends, I do have Chichens. We communicate well. We’re friends.

I was in Grozny, but only for one day. But I was never training. I never took trainings with the Chechen Club Ahmad.

Well, the reason why I mentioned that, and we’re going to discuss something now that may be painful, and I apologize for that. I first saw you on the Internet, on a video, a horrible video, and you were being beaten. tortured, abused by Ukrainian nationalists. And they were mocking you because they claimed that you had trained with Ahmad,

that you were more Ahmad than you were Ukrainian. But this is the danger of the internet, is that the information isn’t always correct. But the point is, for the simple love of the sport, for simply training with people who also love the sport as much as you did,

You were somehow singled out as being unpatriotic to Ukraine by people whom I wouldn’t call Ukrainian patriots. Could you, and again, I don’t want to recreate something that’s unpleasant, but could you discuss how it came to be that you were captured by, I believe it was Azov persons, and why they treated you the way they did?

It happened to me not because I did something, but because I did not refuse from my roots, from my faith, from my culture. I didn’t change the blades. I didn’t change the shoes. That’s the saying, saying that I didn’t betray anybody. And a lot of people, unfortunately, now, they’re zombied, and people change.

And I didn’t change the camps. I know exactly where I come from. I know my family tree. And due to that, because of that, I was always standing on the principles. I didn’t turn my face 180 degrees. And people like this are not comfortable for them.

What they want are the people to obey them, do what they say.

And, of course, Ukrainian propaganda began this campaign a long time ago. It’s not after 2022 and not after 2014.

In the beginning of 2000, I was a small kid. I was just a boy. Remember, we had President Yushchenko as a president of Ukraine. And you could – I was really a kid. I think I was 12 years old when he became a president. And we were watching how they rewrite the history,

how there’s changing all the principles of the – Of course Even then I couldn’t understand what was going on how come it takes place if I was raised I had one heroes that I followed what I believed in and now They call them betrayed The the ones who betrayed and they take out their monuments.

I couldn’t find out why it was taking place You know in the West in the United States

When people mention Azov, or Adar, or Kraken, or any of these other names, when we mention Bandera, what we’re told is it’s just a small part of Ukraine. You exaggerate their influence. You exaggerate this. You allow a handful of bad apples to define a noble country. But you mentioned Yushchenko.

And you mentioned, I mean, he made Stepan Bandera the national hero of Ukraine. Is Banderism just a small part of Ukraine, or is it a larger problem that everybody should be concerned about?

Very good and important question. Thank you for asking. Without any doubt, I’m not saying that all Ukrainians are Nazis. But I think, unfortunately, from 3% to 5% radicals, they are there. They popularize the Nazism. Bandera is the hero for them. Hitler is their hero. And we could go on. Do they have the power and authority?

Yes, they have their authority. It’s so supported by the government, by the government structures, by the authorities. That’s not propaganda. I watched it with my own eyes personally. I went through it all.

And of course, counting in that small percent, it’s small.

Nevertheless, one radical. It’s more dangerous than 1,000 real citizens.

My observation also is that it’s not just the one radical that’s dangerous, but it’s the silent majority that allow the one radical to be heard. Again, I don’t mean to be insulting to anybody, but I watched videos of common Ukrainian citizens being saran-wrapped to telephone poles, had their faces painted green, and nobody intervened. Nobody stopped to help.

People either walked by indifferently or they actually cheered on, slapped people, spanked people, humiliated people. These weren’t radical Azov people. These were average Ukrainians. Why? Why are the Ukrainian people tolerant of this kind of abuse of humans? Is it because the Ukrainians hate Russia so much that they allow people to have

their face painted green and to be insulted this way?

Concerning hate for Russians, I want to emphasize this. Ninety-nine percent of all the Ukrainianization was built on Russophobia. You have to understand that it’s very important. Concerning the people’s attitude, unfortunately, they are being scared. They have fear in their hearts. They don’t have the right to speak a word or for their faith or to voice something out.

When there was a revolution took place, the active participants were the people from the near football soccer ultra movement. Of course, I had a chance to have, to meet them, to talk to them. stopped having any connections with them, with their political views. It’s connected with, first of all, that they were putting Hitler and Bandera as heroes.

Though I am a citizen of Ukraine, I’m born in Kyiv. My roots go there over 100 years. Nevertheless, I’m ethnical Russian, because before, earlier, we never separated. My grandfather, he is from Chernykov district. Then it was Russian Empire. And then the first one who moved to Kyiv was my great-grandfather.

He was a political activist from the revolution, from Kazan. The peasants attacked their house, beat them up, and the story is being repeated, unfortunately. But in the other time, The point is that people are afraid. People are scared. This is the cornerstone. And they’re intimidated.

And those football, soccer fans there, and whoever is in that team, people are afraid. One word. And you’re gone.

Look, you’re a sportsman of a very high degree. You have soccer clubs. They’re sportsmen, and you have the fans of the soccer clubs. You have your own fans, Mick Smallcher Art fans. What is it about football that allows people who should be similar to gravitate towards radical nationalism? Why, for instance, aren’t you a radical nationalist?

You’re a fighter. You’re violent in a controlled way. Why aren’t you a radical nationalist? I mean, what makes you different than the football club members of Kharkov, who became the heart and soul of the Azov movement?

Probably I was blessed enough where the propaganda could not take me in. They couldn’t buy me after the situation and the torture that took place in my life. Yes, they were trying to hire me during all that time when I was on the territory of Ukraine.

Always many people told me that here, say something bad about Russia, judge them. the special operation, and so on.

But I was faithful to my principles.

Of course, it’s connected, first of all, with I was interested in a history, especially in the history of my family tree. And I know that I have a lot of relatives on Ukrainian territory, modern Ukraine. Here in Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, exactly on Friday, I’m going to To my uncle, it’s his birthday.

I will see him for the first time. And I think that I did not forget. My roots play as a key role.

We know you were beaten. We saw it on the video. You were abused horribly. Two questions. The first one is the easy of the two. How did you get out of Ukraine? How did you become free of the Azov people? How did you make your way to Russia?

After I was bitten, the videos that you watched me, that was just the beginning.

I was just a drop in the sea what I went through.

After that, I was taken to the Militia Department. Then the real torture started there. I think I can say I went through hell. I was shocked with electricity. They beat on my heels. I have a trauma in my head. My ribs were broken.

Then I lost consciousness.

They put ice water on me, and I came back.

It wasn’t difficult as physically. In my mind, it was difficult.

And after that, I was passed on to, right there, to the Special Services of Ukraine. I wasn’t able to think about anything. I was depressed emotionally, depressed. They gave me some kind of paper and said, you have a choice.

Either you’re going to sign this paper, or we’re going to send it to Azov base.

And we all say goodbye to you, that they would not let me leave. Of course, I signed the paper. I didn’t even read it. I think something was about the partnership or agreement to deal with them, whatever it was. They were trying to build a game of a good and bad policeman.

But we all know that they’re acting all together. That’s all one team. political slavery of people. Their interests are only in money.

It’s like a junta.

They take it above their faith and culture. You know, I’m going to repeat that many times. This is my principles. This is what I live with. They put money above their faith and their principles. And after that situation, I was taken home. But I understood clearly that they put me out everywhere. I was a betrayer for everybody.

And of course, they would never give me a second chance. I could not come out of the house safe.

And at that moment, another guy, he’s gone now. He’s dead. My friend, he got connected with me.

And he said, listen, you have to leave. He went to Vinyasa. It was a horrible time. I was always sitting home from one apartment to another apartment to a third apartment. Plus, they stole everything from me. I had no money. I had nothing to my name. They took out. registered weapon that I had on my name.

I had to sign a paper, a claim that if they would kill somebody, you understand, they would put it on me. We know what it would end up with. They stole the money, old coins I had. You know, usually just like thieves, regular thieves. And after that, once I left to Vinita,

why I found out that he was trying to hire me.

It’s kind of funny story. I saw how in Telegram,

it’s a funny story, he was trying to recruit me, and I said that Rindik, we have him, but though he was a friend, a showing of friend, but when I analyze everything here, you know, we have, you know, they kept saying the same thing, you got to open your hearts, orcs,

and continue to repeat the same words about Russia, like orcs. And the key moment was I called Artyom Dmitruk. You probably know him. We started chatting. He was very surprised. He said, are you still in Ukraine? After the whole situation I had, I’m trying to find a way out because I’m concerned about my safety.

As I mentioned earlier, they would never give me a second chance. And Artem helped me to leave Vinice to Odessa. In Odessa, I was sometime with him. And then I found some possible exits. These were gypsies. They took me out definitely for some money. That’s the first time I’m sharing this truth, because earlier I had to,

in my social network, said that I came out on my own. Because it’s connected with being in Europe or in a territory of Ukraine, they would never hear me.

In Moscow, in Russia, I don’t feel myself Ukrainian in Moscow.

I feel myself – I am my own among my own. I see that people are ready to hear me here and listen to me. And here, of course, the second part of the story. Once I was in Moldavia, the situation that happened to me, the people that were the pro-humanitarian thoughts and principles,

one of them connected with me. He is from France. I want to say many things. I’m not going to say his name because time will come whenever that comes. He gave me a ticket from Moldova to Paris. He met me there. I was not shaved. I was not cut. I had to grow a beard.

I had long bridges, long shirt sleeves. It was very hot. And after that, he helped me. Do you know this time I was living with him at his house? He helped me with the paperwork and whatever was needed. In France, I didn’t go after comfort.

But to be restored, I just have to have some time to be back here in Moscow. I feel like I’m home. I came back to my Slavic people every Sunday. I can go to church. I can, you know, I can talk to people heart to heart.

So this is the way, this is the path I had during this time.

It’s a very brave path. The second thing I wanted to tell you, I come from a military background, and my specialty in the military required me to be prepared if I were taking captivity. And so there’s a special training they put you through where you are given information, you’re told you can’t tell the information,

and then they proceed to torture you, beat you, abuse you, to try to get you to tell this information. The important lesson that came out of this training is that every man has a breaking point. No man is a rock. And it was important for us to learn this so that we didn’t put ourselves through unnecessary torture.

We were told we needed to hold on to certain information for a certain period of time. And then we could begin to release it in bits and pieces, inaccurate, whatever, but to make the torture go, to lessen it. The most important thing, though, is we never lose faith with our core values, who we are, what we are.

We never betray our nation. Betraying information, signing a piece of paper, it’s nothing. That’s what I want to pass on to you. You didn’t betray anybody when you signed that paper. You went through more than any human being could possibly be expected to go through. And you’ve stayed true to your values. You’ve stayed true to your God.

You’ve stayed true to your family, to your faith. So you have nothing to be ashamed of. You have everything to be proud of. It’s an honor and privilege for me to talk to you. Are the Russians trying to learn from your experience? Because it seems to me that your experience, if you were an American,

I’d be taking you to these people and having them talk to you on how to incorporate the lessons of your experience into our training and what you went through and how we can simulate that, etc. I don’t know if you can talk about that, but are you sharing your experiences with the Russians?

Because a soldier is a soldier. It’s important that soldiers know that stay true to who you are, and you’re the perfect example of that, but don’t take it to the extreme where they’re going to kill you.

This is what I can say. With the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and God, the road will be blessed. All the time I was tortured, I was praying. I was afraid. Of course I was afraid. You know, sometimes it’s hard for me to remember this moment.

But with that faith in my heart, I was able to go through it. This is probably the key moment. Of course, the risks of what I’m speaking right now, they’re there. It would be easier not to remember it, not to get into the past, not to get through emotions and just as hard psychology-wise and concerning betrayal.

I think it would be a betrayal to be quiet because right now we’re speaking for those whose mouth is being shut. They’re being continually tortured, illegally kept. This is it.

What are you doing now? Are you training? Are you continuing to train? It looks like you’re doing some tussling here and there. Are you staying in shape? Do you plan to get back into the ring? What’s the future hold for Maxine?

In 2017, I finished my sports career. But when I left Ukraine in 2022, I had to socialize in a way. And, of course, the best way – the sports, go to the gym. Some months later, I was having – at the international tour on Brazilian jiu-jitsu. And finally, on jiu-jitsu, my arms were broken, my hand was broken.

And the same day, with one hand, I was on a grappling. I took the first place. with a broken arm, then a long-term rehabilitation, restoration in Europe. It’s more difficult in Europe. I came here already with a trauma, and very quickly I was able to rehabilitate because there are special sports centers for rehabilitation.

And at the moment, I have relaunched my career. I changed the specialty. I am having a sponsorship on grappling on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In 2024 and beginning of 2025, they were quite good. I became a champion of the world on the purple belts on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Abu Dhabi, Master 1,

and plus four times European champion also on colored belts of Jiu-Jitsu and grappling. So I continue, yes, to keep my shape. I continue to fight. And as I said earlier in 2017, I finished that career. And morally, I’m ready. In my mind, I’m ready. This is not my main path in the life.

Yes, it makes me stronger physically. But I think that there are things that are more important, even like us sitting and talking. You know, you cannot compare the two. It’s a lot more important. But I continue to practice yes, because, you know,

simple things I always say that in my networks that four things that we have to be developing. That’s physically, intellectually, spiritually, and socially.

Well, you are a living example of all of those things. I am very inspired by your story. I’m inspired by your faith and motivated by your physical fitness. If you ever have time in the future to train an old fat Marine on some of the skills,

I’d be honored to go in the ring with you just for training purposes. Nothing more serious than that. But I want to thank you, Maxim, for joining me today on this discussion. It’s been a very important discussion. I hope people listen to your story and learn from your story as I have. You are

a prime example of what a human being should be, what a man should be. And it’s been an absolute pleasure talking with you.

Thank you very much. I’m glad that we’re here and that we’re together not putting the walls but building the bridges. The truth in the long term will always win.

This is going to be a different kind of conversation because, I mean, your story is as fascinating as it is tragic. But I think it’s important when we speak in this day and age of improving US-Russian relations that we understand that one of the reasons why US-Russian

relations are strained is because of politics and the politics that leads to the destruction of human beings. Your story is one of a pilot. who was arrested by the Drug Enforcement Agency of the United States in Liberia, Africa, I think 2010. You were accused of trafficking narcotics. They brought you to the United Stat

They ran you through a trial that I don’t believe was fair or just. And then they imprisoned you. I think you received a 20-year sentence. And you served 12 years of this sentence in a federal prison before there was a prisoner exchange. You know, just roughly speaking, we’ve got to clear this up. Were you trafficking narcotics?

Were you guilty of the charges that were proffered against you?

Scott, thank you very much for inviting me, allowing me to give you some details. You said that there was some kind of investigation, that I was arrested, so I want to get back to 2009. And I was not arrested, because arrest is some legal procedure, okay?

agency on the drug trafficking,

drug enforcement agency, when they were performing illegal operation both on Liberia territory, Guinea, Ukraine, they prepared the facts ahead of time, the evidences, they cooked the facts. When I was trying to get the fairness, not to be legal, but to be fair, who am I? Not myself, but all other citizens of Russian Federation that on many,

many political reasons were followed by American law.

When in 2010,

I was kidnapped, right? They pursued me from Monrovia, Liberia’s capital. There were three days of abuse. So I would give him some kind of information. I went through torture. I refused. I said no. I don’t know myself how I lived through it. It was from 28th to 30th of May.

Illegally, I was taken out of that territory with a abuse of all the norms of international law. A huge operation, special operation took place at the money that American taxpayers paid for. You know, simple citizens, they don’t know how much money they spent to support these special forces. I think this is criminal money.

At least DAE is criminal. And when at the court, I was saying, check me out. Check who I am. Who is Mr. Yerushchenko Konstantin? I never hid myself. I didn’t do strange flights, illegal flights. Please, check me out. When we gave all the data to the court, check me out where I was, what I’ve done,

who I worked for, and how and when. It’s not a secret. Yes, I worked a lot in African countries. That’s not a secret. I worked in Guinea, Angola. That’s not a secret. I brought passengers. I brought cargo, humanitarian help. evacuated citizens when they had unstable times.

It was in Guinea.

But American government, DAE and a prosecutor’s office, they didn’t need that truth. They wanted to get the objective that they were going after. And they just wanted one thing. for me to become their agent, cooperate with them, given lies against other citizens of Russia. And what was it done for? To discreditate Russian Federation.

in the government of Russia, in front of the whole world.

I’m a very small chain link on this huge chain. But, you know, they missed the American authorities, you know, FBI, CIA. Huge money is spent for those organizations. So you have so much money. You have all the means to check out who I am and what I do. It’s not so difficult.

See, from the end of the 80s, see, now it’s not difficult, but it wasn’t needed. So American authorities, you know, I’m always saying that American citizens, please open up your eyes. What American powers, what American authorities do to you. People are being judged for lies for Hundreds and hundreds of years. How do you even comprehend it?

We have 2.5 million people in the prisons of the United States were illegally accused. That’s 25% of all the people, all the criminals in the world. Are the people so criminal that you have so many? I spent with them 12 years. I spent with those people years. I understand who they are, and I understand American citizens.

Of course, there’s a lot of difference among Americans, but there’s a lot of workers, simple workers there. from South Carolina, from center. They’re good workers, laborers, simple people, and they were put in jail for 40 years or longer. But I think the system is rotten there. It just can’t be that.

Such a huge population is staying in jails. More than that,

as a federal service treats the prisoners.

You know, it’s not spoken about in mass media of the world. They show Russian jails. Look how bad it is there in Russia. When I was accused, I went back home, and I visited our jails, and I was shocked how the conditions The conditions of the people in the jails are much better than in the United States.

You can talk a lot about different things and what is American law, right, and how it works. I think you need to change it, not the state law. It’s more or less good. But federal law, it has to be changed and open the eyes of the people, because a lot of American mass media,

they don’t say what is going on. They, in a system of justice, so-called system of justice, because justice in the federal system, it does not exist in America. I knew it on my own skin when I was kidnapped. When they started, they cooked a case against me and falsificated a criminal case against me,

and they put me in jail for 20 years, 24 years, actually, because four years was a probation period, right? So totally 24. Praise God for, I’m so thankful, our government that they were fighting for me from this horror, from this jail where I was. in American jails.

It’s not that –

Of course, I’m very mad about that. I’m very upset. You know, I never hurt them or American people or American government. You know, I was criminal. Okay, this is my responsibility. I’ve visited many countries, whether with myself, with my flighting team. I said, guys, come on, friends, we are the territory of another country. Watch what you do.

Watch the laws that are there. Make sure you behave yourself well. Whether, think about it, you’re like an African country, completely different rules, completely different roles or Muslim country. Watch out where you are. So when I started to prove and catch in the lies that prosecutors, when they were swearing in the courtroom, I’m proving the court.

He said, the prosecutor is lying. They’re lying huge. It’s not just a little bit. You know, he didn’t do anything. Lie, falsification, manipulation, that’s all okay. It’s norm for them. Not the law or court. And then the appeal court, court of appeals, they agreed to what was done.

So the system of justice in the United States is rotten, at least on a federal level. And great attention should be given to it by American people. Their eyes need to be open. Tell them the truth. Whether truth is bad or good, it doesn’t matter. You have to know the truth,

not just in the United States and not in Russia, but everywhere else. Come on, let’s speak the truth of what has taken place, not hide things, some moments, and manipulate by the brains of the citizens.

Well, first of all, thank you very much for sharing that. I understand it’s not easy to talk about these things. Just so you know, in America we have, you’re correct to note that the American people are ignorant about the justice system. our symbol for justice is Lady Justice with a blindfold because justice is supposed to be blind.

She carries the rule of law and she carries the scales of justice and they’re supposed to be balanced by truth. But that’s not the case. We have so many people who at one time in their life are to be tough on crime, about justice. You have nothing to fear. You’ve done nothing wrong. You have nothing to fear.

The system of justice is good, et cetera. And then they find themselves under the microscope of the Department of Justice. And then they go to trial, and they realize how absolutely corrupt the court system is, how the prosecutors control everything. And then they go to prison, and they come out, and suddenly they’re all about reform.

Oh, we must reform the prison system. It’s horrible what we’re doing to these prisoners. The system of justice is broken. It was broken before you were accused, but you chose to be ignorant of it. So this is why your story is important. It’s important for the American people to understand that the American system of

justice is fundamentally flawed, and you are a case of that. But it’s also important to note that I’m looking at a very strong man here. I’m not looking at a broken man. is designed to break human beings, to break them down. Especially in your case, my understanding is the U.S.

government wanted you to testify against other people, to give testimony. And one of the reasons they were so harsh on you was to try to break you, to get you to testify, and you didn’t break. We talked before this interview, and there were two aspects of your life that I think people need to understand. First of all,

You were a Soviet Marine. And I believe Marskola Pajota, whether you’re American or, it’s a different breed, a different kind of character. So you are a man of steel. You have a steel core. But maybe the most important thing is the ring on your finger, the support of your family and your wife.

You were married with kids when you were arrested. Today, you’re still married to the same woman. You still have the same family. You’ve stayed united. Tell me about these two things about your life, because I think it defines who you are, and it also tells us so much about who you are as a person. I mean,

you’re a quality human being, a man who has been tested by the Marines, a man who married a quality woman who stood with him side by side through all this trouble, whose family is together. Your families don’t stay together if you’re not a good person, if you’re a bad person, if you’re

If you’ve done something wrong, families tend to break apart. You’re a good man. Could you just give us a little bit of information about those two aspects of your background?

Good question. Thank you, Scott. Thank you. I would get deep into it concerning What is a Russian woman? Globally, what is a Russian woman? Why I am here? What American authorities did to me, it was difficult to go through, you know, broken bones, beaten organs on the inside, torture. They wanted to give me a life sentence.

You know, it was very difficult to go through, you know. If Americans would understand who I was, who I was in the Soviet Army, what was my history, who I served, because Soviet appraising, you know, and Russian appraising, they’re different. When they raised kids in Soviet Union, it was, and even some now, love to the motherland,

respect of the elder. This is very important. Respecting to the family, to the mother, to your father, to your wife. Because when I was in jail in the U.S., I was speaking with hundreds and hundreds of people. I heard their stories, destinies and everything. You know, relationships become different. When they found out,

the American guys that were with me, when they found out and I was judged for 20 years, years and dozens of years i called my wife and said she didn’t leave you she didn’t divorce you she says no we don’t have that because a russian woman she’s like a old

um she’s gonna get into the fire house on fire and she’ll stop the horse on the way same way with my wife with my mother they were fighting for me all the time It didn’t matter to them, lifelong sentence. They continued to expect me to be home.

And when they threw me in jail, I had already 20 years announced. And I said, Victoria, you’re young. You know, you need to make sure that you have to put your life in order. She answered me quite tough. She answered, she used some cuss words. I found out that she would follow me to the end.

The American people, not all of them, but a very different structure. I take examples, you know. A husband was three, four, five years in jail, then they divorced. And when I look at them, when I saw their faces, they were like, When I call my wife every day, how is she? She’s okay. We were discussing some things,

and nobody was jealous that a woman was supporting me with any way possible, however she could, just financially, psychology-wise. She was running to the government, finding justice, lawyers, you know. Definitely they had some jealousy, but still, what we went through But the Soviet school and the army, I believe that every man has to go through the army.

It doesn’t matter what country, whether Russia, whether it’s United States, because you give back like a debt to your country, to your motherland. You were in the army, I was in the army. And, of course, I had guys around me who were professional fighters, professional warriors from the army, and there was respect for each other,

respect that every person was paying a debt to the motherland. And what politicians do is a completely different story. You gave an oath, you have to do what you have to do. An example I had before. before they announced me guilty I was waiting for the verdict and the federal

system they have I don’t know how would be probation officer I don’t know how it would be in Russian a give recommendations before the verdict announced by judge for how long they should give me a sentence lifelong 40 50 60 years so when He asked me questions. I had an interview with him.

I answered two or three questions. Then I didn’t want to answer to him. He says, who are you? I’m Konstantin Yerushenko, Russian Federation. And they asked me a question as follows. Who are you in Soviet army? I answered him. OK, here’s the answer. If you have anything against me, send official requests to the Ministry of Defense,

to Russian Federation, and they’ll give you a full detailed answer. And I never said anything else. Of course, according to American laws, with a probation officer, it was a big mistake. Mr. Rakov, the judge, Judge Rakov, he noticed that he said, you have not spoken with a probation officer in details.

I will add to you years of sentence. And I said, if I would answer to him who I was and what I did, he said, then I would violate my constitution and my oath. Give me another 10 years, 20 years, but I gave an oath. I have to keep it. This is a Russian mentality of Russian soul.

I’m a soldier. I’m an ex-soldier. like my wife. We got married in 1992. We take this cross and we carry it, and we must carry it because we are one family. We are one nation, and nation must be united. That’s unclear because people in the U.S., they’re a bit different. They’re not really in agreement much.

I think we’re a little bit more united. In Soviet Union, we had a phrase, the family is a cell of the society. So each family would be tough and strong. in the cities and the villages, then as we grow, the cells grow. We will be victorious. We will be undefeatable. When people have differences, disagree,

but you can see it on your own what takes place in the world. Countries are divided. Nations are divided on the different reasons. Look, Ukraine, one nation, one nation, what to fight about? Belarusians, Ukrainians, Russians. But on some reasons, nationalism gets the head up and other reasons. They continue to do this division work.

It’s like a bombing division work. And they wash out the minds of young people. But when you have education in the family, appraising in the family, Soviet appraising in Russia. Like we do, we call it in the army where we have a right political appraising. The youth must understand that money is not the number one thing.

The number one is your mother, father, your wife, your husband, your country, your nation. If any person, whether it’s U.S. or United States or Ukraine or in Europe, people would understand that division. It’s not going to bring to anything else, to any good case.

Well, thank you very much for sharing that. I just want to say I’m deeply impressed with your wife, but that also reflects on you. The fact that a woman stands with her man in times of trouble speaks volumes about the quality of the people you are, and it also speaks volumes about the quality of the Russian peopl
As you said, she’s a Russian woman, so I’m deeply impressed by that. It’s a shame you had to go through this, and I’m deeply sorry. that my government was involved. Let’s talk about this for a second. Why did they come after you? It’s a rhetorical question. You weren’t a criminal. They manufactured a case.

If you were a criminal, a real criminal, when they arrested you, they would have put handcuffs on you and flown you away. Instead, they isolated you, they beat you, they tortured you. Why? Because they want to invent a crime. They want to make you testify. They falsified information at your trial. The whole works. Why?

As you said, you’re a small cog in a big chain. Tragically, you got caught up in a political process of demonizing the Russian Federation, the Russian people, the Russian government, to show the American people that the Russians are bad. So they manufactured a case against you.

And the reason why this is important isn’t just to highlight the human tragedy and the inefficiencies of American justice, but our presidents, your president and my president, are going to meet on Friday, tomorrow, to try and talk about improving U.S.-Russian relations. But to improve U.S.-Russian relations, we need to do more than have our presidents meet.

We need to resolve the fundamental problems that lead America to do what they did to you. This isn’t about a miscarriage of justice. Of course it is. You were in prison, though. You saw prisons full. of American citizens where there’s been a miscarriage of justice. We’ve talked about the need for reform. Let’s push that aside.

This is about building trust between Americans and Russians. How could you ever trust America again? How could you ever trust America again, given what they did? And that’s a fundamental question, because if we can get you to trust us again, there’s hope to repair our relations. But the damage that was done to yo

has been done collectively to the Russian nation by the United States in a number of ways. The sanctions we put on, the accusations that we made. We accused your president of kidnapping children. A manufactured case, it happens all the time. From your perspective, is there a possibility to restore trust between the Russian people and the American people?

What needs to happen so that we can live together, trust one another? Because I would never condemn you if you looked at me in the eyes and said, I will never trust another American again. I have no faith in the American people. You have every right to say that.

Is there hope for good relations between Americans and Russians?

You know, I would divide that. Trust who? Structures, authorities, or trust the nations. Big difference. I have a lot of friends in America, great American friends, and Afro-Americans, white Americans.

Latinos,

good people, great people, they were raised in U.S., no more people, excellent people, and I have trust for them. But my personal point of view, now, at this moment, I would not, the structures of the U.S. government, I would not trust, I will not trust special forces, because they have not changed. Special services, they didn’t change.

And I’m glad that Mr. Trump, when I was in jail, I saw a lot of political shows. I watched every day what was happening inside American society. And if I would be American, I would be a Republican, more adequate people there in that party than a Democrat. But now I look what Trump does. Yes,

attempts maybe not to stop war, but for some kind of economical tasks,

all the sanctions that are now on Russia.

They are faced against back.

They go back. It’s like a boomerang. It goes back to American people. It’s about price, how prices form. There’s a lot of products and materials that we export to U.S. And now sanctions and American people hurt due to that. Concerning trust, I would divide that. I would separate that. American people, yes, I can trust them.

But you have to tell the truth about what’s happening, because all these American channels, NBC, Fox News, CNN, and et cetera, has manipulators, strong manipulators, especially channels of Democratic Party, CNN, NBC, and so on. Fox News, you can maybe understand a little bit. But the other channels, no. They change, they twist the facts. Partial truth is given.

Partial truth is not given. And when they ask me, as a Russian who was in the Russian Federation, regular Americans that lived in the United States all their life, fully seriously said, Do you have mobile phones in Russia? Do you have AC? People are seriously asking me. I was shocked, because what do you mean?

Mass media says we don’t have those things. We are wearing these crazy hats. We have nothing. Of course, I’m paraphrasing, but that’s what they say in the movies and the news. They constantly keep saying that. And if to be more open, at least in informational way,

then the trust will be bit more between the countries and also the higher levels. What do you mean a state, an authority? It’s a support for the nation. And if the nation will understand what takes place, they will support. And then the authority through mass media brainwashes the nation. Of course, then, that’s what we see.

America was open until the 80s.

until Reagan came in. It was open country, 70s, 60s. It was beautiful country. And where did it go? It went down. Democracy? There is no democracy in the United States. The human rights? None. Big question. Election system, whoever pays more, that’s the one who wins. Who are the voters? The people are not voting.

Some kind of part of a small part of the nation. Even the election, this two-party system, big questions towards that system.

The picture of your opinion is very depressing. But as an American, I can identify exactly with what you’re saying. If I take what you said at face value, though, there’s no hope. What you’re saying is that no matter what our leaders do tomorrow in Alaska, there’s no hope because America is fundamentally broken. You can’t trust the system,

and the American people appear to be unable to change the system because the system won’t let it be changed. I don’t disagree with your analysis, but as an American citizen, it’s not my job to sit back and cry. It’s not my job to go, oh dear, everything’s bad. It’s my job to fix the system.

And we can’t fix the system if we, for instance, commit suicide by going to war with Russia, because a war with Russia would be the end of the world. And so what I’ve been doing is trying to promote the idea of peace between Russia and the United States to prevent a war. In order to do that,

I have to change the mindset of the American people. You saw it. When you say you’re a Russian, do you have flushing toilets? Do you have washing machines? You have refrigeration? You have roads? Cars that use gas? I mean, the ignorance of the American public about the reality of Russia is very real.

And that’s one of the things that I’ve been trying to do is capture the Russian reality and bring it back to the United States. There’s a lot of work to be done, and I will continue to do that work. But we need Russia’s help. So I’m asking you,

as a Russian who has been betrayed by the US government, betrayed by the US system, who knows the reality, what can I do to win your trust? Because our leaders will need time. If they make an agreement on Friday to move forward in peace, They’re going to need time to make that happen.

And during that time, the American people need to mobilize in support of the concept of peace. Do we have time? Can you give us that time? Can you learn to be patient with the American people? It’s a question I’m asking you. After everything you’ve gone through, all of the cruelty and the inhumanity that you’ve experienced,

I know you probably will never trust us as a system. But are you willing to trust the American people and have patience for us so that we can change the system.

American people to the nation, yes, we have trust. If you talk to them and open their eyes, they’re fantastic people. You know, they didn’t know me. I was just a simple Russian. They helped me. American citizens, Christians, Christians, Christians, they came to me. They visited me. They gave me help.

But we have to be open if citizens of United States would come to Russia and visit and take a look at who we are, how we live. Not just here. They would go to Ukraine to understand the mentality. Belarus. They would understand who we are, what we do. We are open, very open.

Of course, not all of us. We are an old mass, you know, Americans, you know,

for simple citizens that,

especially from the deep of the country, not like New York or Philadelphia. That’s a different topic to discuss. But, you know, simple workers, people that work at the manufacturing plants in the villages, in the farms, excellent people. They’re hardworking people.

They’re just like you.

Yes, just like me. They’re believers. And faith is number one thing. I believe Christian faith. I don’t care Catholic, Orthodox. There’s Christian faith. So here, faith. Yes, we do have trust to American people, simple citizens, to the government and special services. No. But it’s good that now, you know, all Russians, we’re open. Our president is open.

You want to talk to us? Come on over. Let’s talk. Let’s sit down at the table. Let’s have negotiations to regulate all the questions, solve all issues. So now we come to the point where we can’t go on. If the war takes place, It’ll be a catastrophe.

So we, in any case, we have to have a two-side relationship at the highest level. Change the system, that’s a completely different question, especially in the United States. And I always tell Americans, get off your knees, get off your knees, take a look, take your ride that is given to you by the country and fight.

But people are really, really afraid by the system itself.

Well, the fear comes from ignorance. When you’re ignorant of something, you’re afraid of it because you don’t understand it. In America today, as you learned, we have Russophobia and we’re afraid of Russia because we’re ignorant of Russia. We don’t understand Russia. I’ve been working very hard over the course of the past several years to try and

come to Russia, to learn from Russia, to capture the Russian experience and bring it back to the United States. As you may know, last year, I was supposed to come to Russia to speak at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. And the U.S. government took my passport and refused to let me travel to Russia because they

were afraid of my work. They were afraid that if I actually talked to the Russians, learned about Russia, brought it back, that the people would become mobilized and seek to change the system. And in August, a year ago, They sent 40 FBI agents into my home to raid my home, to intimidate me,

to accuse me of being a Russian agent. They criminalized free speech. I was simply talking about peace, peace between Russia and United States. But merely talking about peace became a crime. One of the interesting things is they charged me with manipulating the elections. Well, what is a citizen supposed to do?

A vote is a manipulation of the election. If you are saying something that I don’t agree with, I’ll vote for the other person. And I’m allowed to say why I’m voting against them. I was saying that we need to promote peace with Russia, but I was accused of trying to manipulate the election on behalf of Russia.

No, it was on behalf of the American people. But I started a program to promote this, and they called it a Russian program. Russia had nothing to do with this program. But it was a, I did a coin. to help promote the idea, to encourage the vote.

What would you do to save democracy, save America, save the world through your vote in November? This is the project that the United States government said the Russian government was behind. No, this is my project. But I decided to bring this coin with me to Russia because I do want to make it a Russian project.

Not because you’re telling me to, but because I’m asking you to help me create peace. This has been an outstanding conversation. It’s absolutely essential that we continue these conversations. And I’d like to offer you this coin as a gesture of gratitude for everything you’ve done for all the sacrifice you’ve made, all the suffering you’ve done.

But more importantly, by joining me here today to have a conversation about peace and the potential of friendship. What we’re doing here today, every American should be doing with Russians, learning about each other. And once we do that, we become empowered with knowledge. And when you have knowledge, you’re not afraid.

And when you’re not afraid, you can take the action. So thank you very much for joining me today. in this edition of the Russia House. It’s been an absolute honor and privilege to talk with you.

The main idea of what you said has to be understanding between the people, among the people. The more we visit each other, I invited a lot of people. I said, come on over, guys. Visit me. Come to me. Come to see me in Russia. I had guests from Europe. I showed them who we are, what we are.

Come, stay at my house. Look how we live. Go to the shops. Walk the streets, villages, cities. Take a look. If there will be more exchange, then there will be great understanding. And there wouldn’t be the problems that we have now between the countries. Good thing that you have a possibility to come to Russia.

You see the reality. I have a friend in America, a great friend. When he came first time to Russia and he found out what is Russia, what is Europe, what kind of people live here, more open, more trust. and communication, you know, communication between the people. And then everything else would follow and build itself between two countries.

Thank you very much that you invited me.

Thank you very much. And I want to thank the audience for joining us here today on this special edition of the Russia House. It’s been facilitated by the National Unity Club, who helped bring Konstantin here to speak today. And I want to thank our hosts, the TASS News Agency, for providing us this wonderful platform.